Formerly "The Blind Chatelaine's Poker Poetics". Performed from Galatea's mountain -- where nature, art, poetry and wine converge with much love -- she now goes through her keychain as if it were a rosary, unlocking doors for you. Because if Rimbaud said "I is Another," the Chatelaine shares, "Moi am all about Toi."

Saturday, January 05, 2013

HONESTLY ASSESSING MOI 2012 POETRY READS

Whatever merit exists in moi poetry blather partly has to do with my diligence in reading others' poetry. So, for the year 2012, I read 263 publications by poets or on poets. The list below is alphabetized by the poets’ and/or editors’ last names (the latter usually because I include poetry journals in my read).

My reading is lower than my 2011 reads when I read at least 268 poetry books/collections, nine poetry or poetry-related anthologies, 17 poetry/literary journals and 26 other books/publications created by poets (I don’t separate out my 2012 list into categories this time because I’m lazy). So it’s clear that I need to step up moi game a bit in reading. Okay, I’ll do that—I’ve got plenty of spare time, after all (hah).

I’ll raise again some concepts (which I noted for 2009 when I began blogging my annual poetry reading lists), to wit:

The list is not a portrayal of the type of poetry I favor. In reading poems partly as a practitioner, I just want to know what's out there. I've found that POV to be more elucidating than trying to read through some defined aesthetic gate. The process is not just more educational but also makes for the fabulous moments of welcome discoveries—in 2012, moi DISCOVERIES OF THE YEAR include Lucille Clifton (late to the party, I know), Ron Padgett (really late to the party, I know), Richard Froude, S.S. Prasad, Daniela Olszewska, and all the poets in the anthology AS IF IT FELL FROM THE SUN: AN ETHERDOME ANTHOLOGY: TEN YEARS OF WOMEN’S WRITING, edited by Colleen Lookingbill & Elizabeth Robinson and featuring Merle Bachman, Faith Barrett, Margaret Butterfield, Erica Carpenter, Valerie Coulton, Caroline Crumpacker, Susanne Dyckman, Kelly Everding, Renata Ewing, Amanda Field, Kate Greenstreet, Anne Heide, Brydie MPherson Kuchi, Erica Lewis, Susan Manchester, Linda Norton, Roberta Olson, Megan Pruiett, Lisa Rappoport, Sarah Suzor, and Stacy Szymaszek. For the latter, the sum of the anthology was greater than adding up individual poets’ merits because of the superb editorial direction.

My ethical desire is to read every poem, which means I often randomly grab from a huge TO-READ pile (which includes but is not limited to the review copy list for Galatea Resurrects). I also end up reading a few books for unique reasons--like if my local library stocks a new poetry book, I check it out in order to prove there's demand for poetry...and then inevitably read it before I return it. I also notice that I read Gary Snyder more than my actual interest in him because his books are often at the local public library sales.

Yet again, I avoided reading Ron Silliman whose work I much admire! All I can say is that I noticed that his To-Be-Read books were all hidden by other piles. Sometimes, I read just whatever is most convenient to be picked up! Must redress or at least randomize those piles!

Did I like every book I read on this list? Nope, but that's irrelevant. Even the most banal poem has a place in this wonderland-landscape of Poetry. All poems are welcome to Moi. And contrary to would-be pundits' proclamations, THERE ARE NEVER ENOUGH POEMS.

Here then is the poetic Relished W(h)ine List for 2012, complete with some brief notes on them to the extent I was moved to comment at the time I read them—Moi is also what she reads:

FILAMENT SENSE, poems by William Allegrezza (wonderful, but everything he writes is fabulous)

MATCHING SKIN, poems by Shirlette Ammons

PRINCESS OF THE WORLD IN LOVE, poems by Stan Apps (clever!)

THE DOOR, poems by Margaret Atwood

EVERY DRESS A DECISION, poems by Elizabeth Austen

SCARED TEXT, poems by Eric Baus

THE BUDDHIST, memoir/poetry by Dodie Bellamy (interesting to read right after THE BUDDHIST Rachel Levitsky’s THE STORY OF MY ACCIDENT IS OURS. The coincidence resulted in me wishing there was a little of Levitsky’s in THE BUDDHIST and little more of Bellamy’s in THE STORY …)

ADVICE FOR LOVERS, poems by Julian Talamantez Brolaski (Impressive. Worthy of much attention so, Peeps, pay attention to this book!)

WILLIAM BRONK: BURSTS OF LIGHT: THE COLLECTED LATER POEMS, Ed. by David Clippinger (especially as it’s a “collected,” this book made me so HAPPY! It makes me so happy to see a poet get it right … among other things, it validates a lifetime of poetic struggle, and that’s never easy. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

THE COLLECTED POEMS OF LUCILLE CLIFTON 1965-2010, Edited by Kevin Young and Michael S. Glaser (have never really paid attention to her work until this volume. And now I’m a fan. Deeply and satisfyingly intellectual. Worthwhile life-poems-life…!)

MINIATURES, poems by Meredith Cole

COLEMAN HAWKINS ORNETTE HAWKINGS, poems by Norma Cole

THE APPLE THAT ASTONISHED PARIS, poems by Billy Collins (this version contained a “new foreword,” which ended up being my favorite part of the book for talking about the period when he was a newbie poet and met people who encouraged him)

THE PRIMORDIAL DENSITY PERTURBATION, poem by Stephen Collis

TRANSCENDENTAL TELEMARKETER, poems by Beth Copeland

THE ARCADIA PROJECT: NORTH AMERICAN POSTMODERN PASTORAL, Edited by Joshua Corey and G.C. Waldrep

THE APPLE TREES AT OLEMA: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by Robert Hass (While I’ve intellectually understood Hass’ earlier collections to be achievements, I never got into his poems until the newer poems in this book, which is a bow to his poetic prowess because I don’t think he could have so masterfully pulled off those poems without having learned much from living and writing poems over the years—this is one example of why I so like reading Selecteds and Collecteds, because these types of books show me something about the poet’s macro versus the micros of individual smaller collections or poems.)

LAND OF CIRCLE: WRITINGS COLLECTED FROM THE LAND, poetry and prose by Linda M. Hasselstrom

NEW FORMS AND MEDITATIONS FOR THE PRESSURIZED LIBERTINE MONK, poems by j/j hastain

FIFTEEN POEMS by Bobbie Louise Hawkins

BANDIT, poems by Jared Hayes

SEDNA, poems by Michael Helsem (deceptively lyrical. At times, funny)

VERSE. Vol. 27, Nos. 2 & 3 (2012), poetry journal co-edited by Brian Henry and Andrew Zawacki (includes John Olson and reading his poems in this issue just reminds me of how so many try to write as he does and only end up being poetasters relative to Olson’s mastery. I adore the opening paragraph to one poem, “Diamonds” for beginning with the sentence “I don’t think much of diamonds” only to end with “This is why I wear binoculars, and enjoy riding in elevators.” So much happens between those two sentences and they sing even as they grin.)

THE STORY OF MY ACCIDENT IS OURS, novella by Rachel Levitsky (interesting to read this right after THE BUDDHIST by Dodie Bellamy. The coincidence resulted in me wishing there was a little of Levitsky’s in THE BUDDHIST and little more of Bellamy’s in THE STORY …)

OLD WAYS TO FOLD NEW PAPER, poems by Leza Lowitz (fabulous, especially as a debut collection)

SOME MATH, poems by Bill Luoma (the funniest “sound poems” I’ve ever experienced. Like, from “The Concept of Math”: A waffle lives in the universe / like your ass in juicy velour. / What determines your ass you ask? / The construction of the bevatron in Berkeley. Or, from “Some Math”: The naughties of quaranta / of the tenera of rapit2a / of his vostra Zed il donkey / the one of localizzo of riflessione I gave convolusis / I gave them a cut of the dulie.)

THE PRACTICE OF RESIDUE, poems by Kimberly Lyons

PARTYKNIFE, poems by Dan Magers (rollickin’ energy!)

SLOT, poems by Jill Magi

SAY SO, poems by Dora Malech (includes the poem “The Station” which is so clever and emotional that I know it’ll be one of my most pleasurable poem-reads this year!)

CEMETERY CHESS: SELECTED AND NEW POEMS by Sandy McIntosh (Sandy is one of those poets who deserve more attention—I don’t really know of anyone doing the combo of surrealism and humor that he does, and does so deftly. Nor am I biased simply because he has poems here dedicated to my husband and my dogs as well as another poem entitled “Eileen R. Tabios”….read him, Peeps: he’s worth the attention!)

YELLOW FIELD (September 2011), Curated by Edric Mesmer (fabulous—especially the essay by Rachel Blau DuPlessis about Robert Creeley helping her off the stage during an H.D. conference versus Allen Ginsberg’s boorish “Get on with it…!”)

HOMEMADE POEMS by Lorine Niedecker (charming, particularly as reproduced handwritten chap originally made by poet for Cid Corman)

AS LONG AS TREES LAST, poems by Hoa Nguyen (long admired the tensility of her poems. She makes it look easy, this making of poems as flexible steel)

TRANSFER, poems by Naomi Shihab Nye

SARD, poems by Philip Byron Oakes (a cool book!)

CATCH LIGHT by Sarah O’Brien (lucid, luminous, wise, gorgeous….)

LARYNX GALAXY, poems by John Olson (so multi-layered and multi-referential in a loose way so that disjunction always maintains an inherent harmony. Arguably my favorite 2012 poetry read)

CLOUDFANG :: CAKEDIRT by Daniela Olszewska (deeply satisfying read)

NEW & SELECTED POEMS by Ron Padgett (I’m late to the party—but with this book, I officially become a Ron Padgett fan. This is the 1995 book published by Godine)

SILVER ROOF TANTRUM, poems by Naomi Buck Palagi

PERSONATIONSKIN, poems by Karl Parker (admirably expansive)

POEMS 1955-1959 AND AN ESSAY IN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Boris Pasternak

MIGRITUDE, poetry and performance texts by Shailja Patel (Leny, I can see why and appreciate how you related this to moi BRICK! Wonderful project, and superbly edited by someone whose name always comes up swiftly in moi mind when I think of editors with integrity: Sunyoung Lee of Kaya)

BLACK BIRDS : BLUE HORSE, poems by Natalie Peeterse

HOOFS, poems by Holly Pester (love its energy!)

GOAT IN THE SNOW, poems by Emily Pettit

DRIVING MONTANA, ALONE, poems by Katie Phillips (what a wonderful project! Yes, the poems are nicely done but the publication of it is fabulous as the poems are interspersed with nice black-and-white photos)

COMMON TIME, poems by Chris Pusateri (fabulous, deeply engaging, absurdly intelligent and enchantingly witty—which is why it just became the third title I’m reviewing for the next issue of Galatea Resurrects!)

FROM THE SOFT PLACE/THINGS TO DO IN PERSONFORM, poetry broadside by Kate Schapira and Daniela Olszewska

A VOICE HEARS YOU FROM MYSTERIOUS PLACES, audio-video CD collaboration of poems, visual art and sound by Barry Schwabsky (voice and poems, except for one translation of a Paul Eluard poem) and Marianne Nowottny (gorgeous, lyrical, evocative!) With a very on-point introduction by Kenneth Goldsmith!

ONE SLEEPS THE OTHER DOESN’T, poems by Jacqueline Waters (a pleasurable reading)

RING OF BONE: LEW WELCH COLLECTED POEMS, Editor Donald Allen (it was most useful to me when I also considered the poems to have been poetics required to create what, for me, was a perfect poem in the book – the title poem “Ring of Bone”. Also was encouraged by this to begin what will be a new poetry manuscript, J. The whole thing about Welch’s “language is speech” was a push; as regards “J”, there is so much I’ve long wanted to say but … had not. So, as ever, Poetry begins as in Poetry verbs action.)

“THE SEA UNDER THE HOUSE” THE SELECTED CORRESPONDENCE OF JOHN WIENERS AND CHARLES OLSON, PART I, correspondence and poetry edited by Michael Seth Stewart

“THE SEA UNDER THE HOUSE” THE SELECTED CORRESPONDENCE OF JOHN WIENERS AND CHARLES OLSON, PART II, correspondence and poetry edited by Michael Seth Stewart

A MARZIPAN FACTORY by Grzegorz Wroblewski, Trans. from the Polish by Adam Zdrodowski (glad to have this book out there)

BENDING AT THE ELBOW, poems by Matvei Yankelevich (fabulous. so compelling I ended up reviewing it for Galatea Resurrects)

FURTHER ADVENTURES IN MONOCHROME by John Yau (gold, deeply mined)

THE ORACULAR SONNETS, poems by Mark Young and Jukka-Pekka Kervinen (re-read this since I first published it years ago, and it is still WONDERFUL!)

EATING IN THE UNDERWORLD, poems by Rachel Zucker (I don’t know why it took me so long to find this 2003 book, which is to say it deserves more attention. Nor do I know why it took so long for someone to reimagine the myth of Demeter, Persephone and Hades into a more fulsome reality. Stellar.)